The Threshold of the Negative Impact of Tourism and Recreation on the Forest Ecosystem – a Case Study of the Łosie Forest District

Summary.

Background. Due to the growing interest in leisure time spent in forests, it is important to set the limit of visits to forests to ensure protection of the natural environment. The aim of the study was to specify the permissible level of the negative effect of recreation on the environment of selected forests in the Łosie Forest District. This factor is a determinant of the recreational potential, expressed as a recreation carrying capacity.

Material and methods. The study was conducted in 257 forest units, covering a total area of 8,627 ha, i.e. 51% of the forest district area. The recreation carrying potential of the forests was assessed with the recreational valorisation method developed for areas with varied orography.
A chi-squared test was applied to examine whether there was a relationship between the recre­ational usefulness of tree stands and the main assessment criteria: the terrain inclination and the age of the tree stand. The strength of the relation was examined with Cramer’s V.

Results. The tree stands of very high usefulness for recreation occupy 5% of the area under study. 16% of the tree stands was characterised by high usefulness, 34% – moderate, 34% – low, while 11% of the stands was not useful for recreation. The mean recreation carrying capacity amounts to 1.68 man-hour per 1 ha during a day. The statistical analysis showed a weak relationship between the terrain inclination and the level of recreational usefulness, and a moderate relationship between the age of tree stands and the level of recreational usefulness.

Conclusions. The study determined the threshold value of the negative impact of recreation on the forest environment. The permissible rate of visits to the area under study is 1.68 man-hour per 1 ha during a day. If this threshold value is exceeded, mass tourism may pose hazard to the stability of the forest ecosystem. Forest administrators should plan tourist traffic reasonably and control it adequately. The tree stands which were found to be useless or of poor usefulness for recreation (45%) should be excluded from this form of use. Recreational traffic should mostly be directed to older tree stands, classified as level II–IV of recreational usefulness.